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As millions of these are switched on in coming days, they ''will put a huge strain on our energy networks'', according to the paper, The Real Cost of Air Conditioners.

After a string of mild summers, this one will provide the greatest test of the networks' capacity to cope.

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Gavin Dufty, policy and research manager at St Vincent de Paul, says the greatest risk of outages will come in February when industry is in full operation. ''Because industry is not back yet, you will find there is a lot of spare generation capacity around at the moment,'' he says. ''The issue is when you start to have multiple hot days in February, especially if they are accompanied by hot nights … when industry and commerce switch on again in the morning, it starts to really stack up.''

He says small holiday towns are at greatest risk of outages at this time of year because the existing infrastructure can struggle to cope with the increase in demand that comes with an influx of holidaymakers.

About 73 per cent of Australian households have an airconditioner, compared with just 35 per cent in 1999. More than 600,000 households have three or more units.

And because of the growing uptake of airconditioners, ''a heatwave could drive household electricity demand to record highs'' and ''create a real risk of interruptions and outages'', the ESAA paper says.

It says that ''for every new airconditioner installed, it costs the energy system another $2000 to upgrade the system to cope''.